Faisal Shahzad, arrested Tuesday as a Times Square car bomb suspect just before he left the country, had recently visited Pakistan. Several Americans showing interest in militant Islam or attacking America have journeyed there before.

Iraq Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told the Monitor that a 9/11-style plot to hijack commercial airliners and fly them into Shiite shrines in Najaf and Karbala has been uncovered. US officials say the plot appeared to be in the early planning stages.

Al Qaeda figurehead Osama bin Laden seeks to sway the US trial of former lieutenant Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a new tape threatening to kill any Americans caught by Al Qaeda. Has he taken note of his own operations over the years?

Saudi Arabia said Wednesday that it had arrested 110 Al Qaeda suspects, about half of them foreigners. The Kingdom said the detained men were plotting suicide attacks on the country's oil installations.

Pakistan announced the arrest of the most senior Afghanistan Taliban commander since 2001, Taliban number 2 Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. With growing intelligence cooperation between the US and Pakistan, could Osama bin Laden be next?

Campaigning for the Iraq parliamentary election scheduled for March opened quietly on Friday, shadowed by concerns that some candidates with ties to Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath party could be disqualified.

Yemen's government – under pressure from the US to focus on Al Qaeda-linked groups operating within its borders – is stepping up efforts to solve a separate pressing issue: five years' worth of fighting with Shiite rebels.

A Yemen-based militant group, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), on Monday denied that airstrikes ordered by the Yemeni government last week had killed its chief Qassim al-Raimi, along with five other top militants.

There is growing concerns that Al Qaeda in Africa and Latin American drug cartels are working together. Latin American cocaine flights go to Africa, en route to Europe. Are Al Qaeda members on the empty planes back to Latin America?

A string of attacks by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in and around Mali has hurt the tourism mecca of Timbuktu. The popular Mali Festival au Desert was moved closer to the city yesterday for safety.

In the wake of the Christmas Day Northwest airlines bombing attempt, some are wondering if the Al Qaeda branches in Yemen and Somalia are linked. Most experts don't see evidence of coordination – not yet.